Innocence, born of Evil
by Kaijukote
Summary: They came and took her from her home. She didn't understand why, and they couldn't explain it to her. She hadn't thought that she needed saving, but they took her anyway. Her friends was still her friends, after all, even if they were dead now.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

**A shinobi's report.**

"You are to report any suspicious activity. It is a C-ranked mission, so I am sure that all of you will be able to handle it."

It wasn't a high ranked mission. It was a simple "observe and report" type of thing. We hadn't expecting anything of this scale, and we weren't sure how to go about handling it. Each of us were chuunin, and only recently had passed the exams.

We had been told that this underground warehouse might have something to do with all the kidnappings of five years ago, and that there might be information lying around. So we geared up, complaining that is was a waste of time. My logic was, why try to solve a case from years ago, one that nobody had even heard about? But we were shinobi, and we had to follow orders, no matter how seemingly unnecessary.

That was how it was to supposed to have been, but what we found was incredible.

A full scale _laboratory_. Something strait out of a hospital (Or perhaps a Sci-Fi book?). There were dead children inside. They were all shoved into a corner, like trash. They had recently died, from what appeared to have been some sort of surgery. It wasn't something anybody could have survived, what, with hearts and lungs and such being _outside_ the body and all. A shinobi is used to death and pain, but it just seemed so…

Inhuman.

There were shelves emptied of all books and scrolls, which, if were there, probably would have explained the entire situation inside of here. Judging from the hasty removal and the dead, the place had either been recently ransacked, or was quickly packed up and moved somewhere else.

It had become clear to us then, what those people were.

Experiments.

We discovered one that was still alive. She was an odd little thing, odd colored hair and eyes. She was innocent, or as innocent as someone could be in these conditions. She said that she was used to death.

We called her Sakura.


	2. Chapter 2

"Why?" the girl asked. She clutched nervously at her dress.

The shinobi looked at each other. Each one silently asked, 'What in the _world_ are we supposed to do now?' The female medic, deciding that _apparently_ the men weren't going to help at all in this situation, put her on the girls' head, and tried to look reassuring. "Well you see… we came here to, uh, look for anything _out of place_." She smiled.

"And like this kid isn't at _all_ out of the ordinary."

The female shinobi scowled over her shoulder. "And now that we've found something, you, we would like to take you back with us." The child looked around, and started to fidget. She had never seen so many grown-ups in one place before. "I don't want to leave." She said quietly. "Makaho, we need to leave before we are discovered! Just grab the girl and let's go." The man said. The pink-haired girl started to panic. "No! You can't make me leave! What about my friends?" A timid looking shinobi picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. "Nooo! Put me down!" "Bato! Make the kid shut up! We're pulling out."

"I don't think that you're going anywhere." Suddenly, they were completely surrounded.

'Who _are_ these people?' the medic thought.

"You have something that belongs to us." Said the speaker. 'I know that boy…' she thought.

The girl gasped. "Kabuto-san." 'Kabuto! The chief medical officer's son?'

Kabuto smiled. "Don't injure the girl." He instructed. The enemy began to advance.

"Get her out of here!" shouted Makaho. She span around just in time to block a kunai, and tried not to imagine what would have happened if it had lodged itself in her neck.

"No…" The child made another attempt to free herself. The last thing Makaho saw was her troubled little face…

"This is very troubling." Sarutobi surveyed the scene. One dead, three injured. And the last one, who escaped with this lab rat of a child.

"Uhh…" the girl turned over in her sleep, and began to mumble incoherently. Pink hair! He had never seen anything like it. "Bato. Tell me again what this place looked like."

The Hokage hardly listened to the explanation. He was trying to think back, years ago when he had discovered Orochimaru was a traitor, tinkering around in an underground laboratory. "There was a young man, also?" he questioned. "Yeah, a genin."

A leaf genin involved. And the little Sakura. He moved a strand of hair out of her eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

So many _people_! So much _noise_! The color! Movement… She stopped to look into a booth selling charms, only to be jerked back into the street by the lady holding her hand. "Come on, don't just _stand_ there… We are going to be so late...!"

Sakura tried to take in all the sights at once. Her head started to hurt. She closed her eyes.

On a balcony, a woman was watering her plants. Sakura channeled her chakra into that person's aura.

Happy, content, and simple. Also, some things that see didn't recognize. Sakura opened her eyes, and realized that they had passed her. She looked at her feet. 'In the other place, there weren't any people like that.' She thought. Fear. Hatred, guilt, lust. She knew about those things. But, when she thought about it, it made sense that there were others, too.

The lady tugged insistently on her hand. Sakura had to jog to keep up. They turned a corner, and she saw a large building with a swing hanging from a tree. "A tree!" Sakura smiled. "Yeah...?" The lady looked down at her strangely. 'I've said something strange, haven't I?' Thought Sakura. Sakura shifted her gaze back to the building. Children who looked about her age were streaming out of the double doors. They joked around with their friends, a few studied from scrolls. Sakura held on to the ladies' hand tighter.

"You wait here while I take care of some paperwork inside." Sakura let go reluctantly. She watched her walk away, into the building. She suddenly felt very lonely. Sakura sat on the swing-set. People were starting to stare at her. She looked away, and tried to avoid eye contact.

"Who's that?" "New kid! New kid!"

Then, after they had gotten a good look at her;

"She's kinda funny looking, huh?" "Freaky!"

Sakura started to get a little angry. 'So what? Appearances aren't important.' She thought furiously. She marked them down in her mind forever as petty, insignificant people. 'I have a great memory. I don't forget faces.' Then she thought better of herself. 'I guess I'm still not used to people.' She sighed. Then, she felt a presence behind her. She quickly stood up, and looked behind her. That somebody fell over. "Hey! You really scared me!" he complained, then dusted himself off. He looked at her very seriously, and then, looking like he couldn't suppress it anymore, grinned widely. "So, who're you?" he asked. She wanted to smile back, tell him the name she was given and be friends, but she couldn't bring herself to it. She just looked down.

"Are you O-k?" he looked concerned about her. 'No…' she thought.

"Oh! I get it! You're shy? That's it!" he self congratulated himself for figuring it out. 'That isn't it at all…' she thought.

"My name…" he started, pausing dramatically. "…is Naruto Uzumaki! I'm gonna be Hokage one day!"

"Hokage?" she asked.

"Don't you know what the Hokage is? A really important person! Everyone looks up to a Hokage…" he let his sentence quietly end. He had a strange, determined look on his face. He suddenly looked at her. "You know, you're kind of weird!"

'He thinks so too. But I understand.'

"My name is… Sakura." She said, doing her best to smile.

"Sa-ku-ra…" he said, testing it out. "That's a good name! Though, not as good as mine of course." He started telling her about his dream when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"I've just finished! You are officially enrolled in the Ninja Academy, like you wanted."

Took Sakura's hand and pulled her away, back into the crowded street. She turned just in time to get one last look at Naruto, who looked rather pleased with himself.


End file.
